By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — Tensions ran incredibly high after School Committee Chair Kate DePrizio made a series of allegations against Committeeman Jamie Hayman during a Sept. 11 meeting.
DePrizio said staff members brought the alleged concerns about Hayman to her and Superintendent Tom Geary, and said the allegations violated the committee’s “ethical standards.” She said the School Committee’s new attorney, Colby Brunt, recommended that she email Hayman a letter about the concerns in order to create a “public record.” She also said Brunt told her to read the letter publicly during the meeting.
“I am writing regarding multiple concerns that have been brought to my attention as chair of the School Committee,” DePrizio stated. “I have discussed these issues with our counsel and attorney Brunt advised me to send this email to you. The issues brought to my attention regard your communication with the administrators, principals, Athletic Department, curriculum department and teachers. I discussed these issues with our counsel and attorney Brunt advised me to remind you that while you absolutely may speak to teachers and staff members about issues pertaining to your child; you need to be cognizant of the fact that you are a School Committee member and any perceived favoritism that may be inferred by a staff member due to your position or requests made through your communications. It is important for School Committee members to recognize that requests for academic placement or request for preferential treatment in athletics or extracurricular activities are not allowed and may by perceived as an abuse of power or potential ethics violation.”
DePrizio also accused Hayman of allegedly being “in regular communication with staff and community members about official School Committee business in a manner that may be perceived as undermining and subverting the authority of the School Committee, School Committee chair and superintendent.”
“As you are aware, last year we all signed the School Committee operating protocols that specifically stated with respect to communications by members: ‘Recognize that authority rests only with majority decisions of the School Committee and will make no independent commitments or take any independent actions that may compromise the School Committee as a whole,’” DePrizio stated. “As such, the expectation is that all members will be mindful of any independent statements regarding School Committee business to staff and community members that may compromise the actions and authority of the committee. Furthermore, I think it is important that members share with the rest of the committee, at a minimum the School Committee chair and superintendent, any communications that they may have had regarding official committee business in the interest of full transparency, adhering to appropriate communication channels and our work as a collective board.”
DePrizio did not present any evidence or reveal what incidents prompted her to send the email to Hayman and read it into the public record.
Municipal boards in Lynnfield and around the state traditionally discuss personnel and elected/appointed official issues in executive session. The Open Meeting Law includes 10 permissible reasons for boards to enter into executive session, including to “discuss the reputation, character, physical condition or mental health, rather than professional competence, of an individual, or to discuss the discipline or dismissal of, or complaints or charges brought against, a public officer, employee, staff member or individual.”
Hayman strongly defended himself against the allegations DePrizio made against him.
“Every single thing in that letter is 100 percent false,” said Hayman. “I have been on this committee for 10 years. If anything, my kids have had to fend for themselves because they shouldn’t have to deal with the fact that I am on School Committee.”
Hayman asked DePrizio to look at him while he was responding to the letter, but she refused to make eye contact with him because she alleged that he threatened her and her family during a phone conversation earlier that day. She said she filed a police report against Hayman, which Police Chief Nick Secatore confirmed.
“You threatened myself and my family, and I won’t stand for it,” said DePrizio.
Hayman said he “did not threaten” DePrizio or her family.
“Can I ask how I threatened your family?” Hayman inquired.
DePrizio said Hayman allegedly told her that he would “destroy me and my children.” She also accused Hayman of allegedly saying he would “ruin my reputation in this town and I should watch my back.”
“I actually did not say that Kate,” said Hayman. “I did say I would be more than happy to hire an attorney and file a defamation lawsuit about this because it is completely unfounded. You are bringing my kids into this and are suggesting they are getting preferential treatment. You are suggesting that they haven’t earned everything that they have done. I take that very personally and I find it incredibly insulting.”
Hayman said he first heard about the allegations earlier that day.
“You said that you have done an investigation. You did an investigation based on what Kate?” Hayman asked.
DePrizio said staff members approached her “with concerns.”
“I am the chair of the School Committee,” said DePrizio. “It is my utmost responsibility to be protective and to bring those concerns to the superintendent. And when they rise to the occasion of being ethics violations or potentially being ethics violations, it is my utmost responsibility to be protective of staff members and this district. Therefore, I took those concerns to our counsel. This is not a Kate and Jamie situation.”
DePrizio said she was “completely following the advice of our attorney.”
“She has drafted this letter and asked me to make it a public record,” said DePrizio.
Hayman asked DePrizio to “tell me where in our protocols, in our policies and in the town bylaws that the School Committee chair does kangaroo court investigations?”
“You can’t because it is not in there,” said Hayman. “What you are describing is a violation of the Conflict of Interest Law Section 23(b)(2)ii. There is a reason why the state handles conflict of interest violations. It is because you have to have someone neutral for it. I have said for 10 years on this committee that if you feel that I am doing something that is wrong, go to the state and file an ethics compliant. It is 100 percent anonymous. That is the procedure, and I welcome it. I welcome any investigation, but you are not going to sit here and defame me, defame my family and make things up about things that I didn’t say. If you are going to go down that route, that’s fine. If you are telling me that you filed a police report because you said I made threats, well we are going to have other issues because that is not true. I can actually prove that it is not true.”
DePrizio said she was not going to file a conflict of interest compliant against Hayman because she was “following up on the advice of counsel on how to handle this matter.”
Hayman said DePrizio and Superintendent Tom Geary did not provide him with “specific examples” of concerns that prompted the letter to be sent.
“You wouldn’t give me one and Tom didn’t give me one,” said Hayman. “If you think there is an ethics violation, then I encourage you to file one with the state. I will fight this. I will fight for my reputation and I will fight for my kids.”
School Committee Vice Chair Kristen Grieco Elworthy told Hayman “there is nothing here to fight” because the email was a “letter of notification.”
“It is still questioning my integrity and it is questioning my kids’ integrity,” said Hayman. “It is questioning my family’s integrity. It is questioning everything that I have done on this committee.”
In response to a question from School Committee member Jim Dillon, DePrizio said, “There was no investigation.”
Dillon said he informs DePrizio about “an issue in the schools” if it is brought to his attention.
“I think every kid deserves a level playing field in the School Department,” said Dillon. “People need to believe that. That is critical. I am not a lawyer, but threatening the chair of the School Committee or threatening their children seems criminal to me. I know you said you didn’t do that, but Kate is saying you did do that.”
School Committee member Jenny Sheehan said the allegations against Hayman are “concerning.”
“The thought that any committee member would ever consider using their position for personal gain or preferential treatment has no place on this committee,” said Sheehan.
Elworthy said DePrizio sent the letter because she chairs the School Committee, and said the board now “has to move forward.”
“Any one of the four of us could be in this role at any point, and it is part of the deal,” said Elworthy.
“Any one of us could be in this role where Kate makes stuff up about us?” Hayman said in response.
“That is a really strong thing to say about somebody,” Elworthy countered.
Hayman said he hasn’t “seen anything that suggests this is true.”
Before the School Committee adjourned the meeting, Hayman made a verbal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for “all emails and text messages related to the email that was sent earlier.”
“It can and should be blinded, but I would like to see all of that,” said Hayman.
Geary said he had “a couple of people come to me.”
“Both were conversations,” said Geary. “There is no trail of that.”
Hayman said he would be “fine” if the “FOIA request turns up nothing.”
Geary opposed Hayman’s FOIA request.
“From my point of view, I am going to tell you now that I am not going to do a search because I know what I did,” said Geary. “There is nothing from me.”
DePrizio concurred with Geary’s viewpoint.
“Mine were both in-person conversations,” said DePrizio. “I relayed them both to Tom and then I relayed them both to the lawyer.”
The heated discussion occurred at the exact same time as hundreds of residents were commemorating the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks during the annual First Responders Day ceremony on the Town Common.
